Deuteronomy 32
1 “Give ear, O heavens, and I speak; And you hear, O earth, sayings of my mouth!
Heaven, listen as I speak; Earth, hear what I'm saying.
2 My doctrine drops as rain; My sayings flow as dew; As storms on the tender grass, And as showers on the herb,
May my teaching fall gently like the rain; may my words drop lightly like the dew, like soft rain on new grass, like spring showers on growing plants.
3 For I proclaim the Name of YHWH; Ascribe greatness to our God!
I will praise the Lord's character. Tell everyone how great he is!
4 The Rock—His work [is] perfect, For all His ways [are] just; God of steadfastness, and without iniquity; Righteous and upright [is] He.
He is the Rock. Everything he does is perfect, for all his ways are right. He is the trustworthy God who is never unjust; he is fair and honest.
5 It has done corruptly to Him; Their blemish is not of His sons, A generation perverse and crooked!
His children have acted immorally towards him; so they are no longer his children because of their sinful stains. They are a perverse and corrupt people.
6 Do you act thus to YHWH, O people foolish and not wise? Is He not your Father—He who bought you? He made you, and establishes you.
Is this any way to repay the Lord, you foolish, stupid people? Isn't he your Father who created you? Isn't he the one who turned you into a nation and made you strong?
7 Remember days of old—Understand the years of many generations—Ask your father, and he tells you; Your elderly, and they say to you:
Remember the olden days; think about times long ago. God and ask your father, and he will explain them to you. Talk to your elders, and they will let you know.
8 In the Most High causing nations to inherit, In His separating sons of Adam—He sets up the borders of the peoples By the number of the sons of God [[or sons of Israel]].
The Most High gave the nations their lands when he divided the human race; he fixed their borders depending on their gods.
9 For YHWH’s portion [is] His people, Jacob [is] the line of His inheritance.
But the Lord's people are his, Israel is his chosen one.
10 He finds him in a land—a desert, And in a void—a howling wilderness, He turns him around—He causes him to understand—He keeps him as the apple of His eye.
He found you in a desert land, in a desolate wasteland of whirlwinds. He protected you; he cared for you; he looked after you as the one he loved the most.
11 As an eagle wakes up its nest, Flutters over its young ones, Spreads its wings [and] takes them, Carries them on its pinions—
Like an eagle watching over its nest, hovering over its chicks, he spread his wings and picked you up and carried you along.
12 YHWH alone leads him, And there is no strange god with him.
The Lord was the only one who led you; no foreign god was with him.
13 He makes him ride on high places of earth, And he eats increase of the fields, And He makes him suck honey from a rock, And oil out of the flint of a rock;
The Lord gave you the high country to rule, and fed you with the crops of the field to eat. He sustained you with honey from the rock and olive oil from the flinty crag,
14 Butter of the herd, and milk of the flock, With fat of lambs, and rams of sons of Bashan, And male goats, with fat of kidneys of wheat; And of the blood of the grape you drink wine!
with yogurt from the herd and milk from the flock, with the fat of lambs, with rams from Bashan, and goats, along with the best wheat. You drank the wine made from the best grapes.
15 And Yeshurun waxes fat, and kicks: You have been fat, you have been thick, You have been covered. And he leaves God who made him, And dishonors the Rock of his salvation.
But Israel, you grew fat and rebelled—fat, overweight, and bloated with food. You abandoned the God who made you and despised the Rock of your salvation.
16 They make Him zealous with strangers, They make Him angry with abominations.
You made the Lord jealous by worshiping foreign gods; you made him angry with such disgusting practices.
17 They sacrifice to the demons, not God, To gods they have not known, New ones—they came from the vicinity; Your fathers have not feared them!
You offered sacrifices to demons instead of God, to gods you didn't know anything about, to brand-new gods that your forefathers didn't worship.
18 You forget the Rock that begot you, And neglect God who forms you.
You dismissed the Rock who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave birth to you.
19 And YHWH sees and despises—For the provocation of His sons and His daughters.
The Lord rejected them when he saw this; his sons and daughters made him angry.
20 And He says: I hide My face from them, I see what their latter end [is]; For they [are] a contrary generation, Sons in whom is no steadfastness.
He said: “I will turn away from them. Then I'll see what happens to them! They are a perverse people, unfaithful children.
21 They have made Me jealous by [what is] not God, They made Me angry by their vanities; And I make them jealous by [what is] not a people, I make them angry by a foolish nation.
They have made me jealous by worshiping things that are not God; they have made me angry with their useless idols. So I will make them jealous using a people that aren't really a nation; I will make them angry using ignorant foreigners.
22 For a fire has been kindled in My anger, And it burns to the lowest [part] of Sheol, And consumes earth and its increase, And sets on fire [the] foundations of mountains. (Sheol h7585)
My anger has been set on fire, burning down to the depths of the grave, destroying the earth and all it produces, even setting fire to the foundations of the mountains. (Sheol h7585)
23 I heap calamities on them, I consume My arrows on them.
I will pile disasters on them; I will use up my arrows shooting at them.
24 Exhausted by famine, And consumed by heat and bitter destruction—I also send the teeth of beasts on them, With poison of fearful things of the dust.
They will waste away from hunger, destroyed by disease and poisonous plague. I will send wild animals to bite them with their teeth, the fangs of snakes that slide along the ground.
25 The sword destroys from outside, And out of the inner-chambers—terror, Both youth and virgin, Suckling with man of grey hair.
Outside in the streets the sword kills their children, inside their homes, they die from fright; young men and young women, children and old people.
26 I have said: I blow them away, I cause their remembrance to cease from man;
I would have told them I was going to cut them to pieces and wipe out even the memory of them;
27 If I do not fear the anger of an enemy, Lest their adversaries know—Lest they say, Our hand is high, And YHWH has not worked all this.
but I didn't want to hear their conquerors jeering, their enemies misunderstanding what had happened and saying, ‘We won all by ourselves, the Lord didn't have anything to do with it.’
28 For they [are] a nation lost to counsels, And there is no understanding in them.
Israel is a nation that doesn't think straight; none of them understand anything.
29 If only they were wise, They would deal wisely [with] this, They would attend to their latter end!
How I wish they were wise, so they could understand it; they would recognize what was going to happen to them.
30 How does one pursue a thousand, And two cause a myriad to flee, If not that their Rock has sold them, And YHWH has shut them up?
How on earth could one man chase after a thousand, or two make ten thousand run away, unless their Rock of protection had sold them, unless the Lord had surrendered them?
31 For their rock [is] not as our Rock (And our enemies [are] judges!)
The rock they rely on is not like our Rock, as even our enemies admit.
32 For their vine [is] of the vine of Sodom, And of the fields of Gomorrah; Their grapes [are] grapes of gall—They have bitter clusters;
But their vine comes from the vine of Sodom, from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poisonous; they are bitter bunches.
33 The poison of dragons [is] their wine And the fierce venom of cobras.
Their wine is the poison of serpents, deadly snake venom.
34 Is it not laid up with Me? Sealed among My treasures?
I've stored this all up; it's sealed in my vaults.
35 Vengeance and retribution [are] Mine, At the due time—their foot slides; For near is a day of their calamity, And things prepared for them have hastened.
I make sure justice is done, I will repay. The time is coming when they will fall, their day of disaster is approaching, their doom will soon arrive.”
36 For YHWH judges His people, And gives comfort over His servants. For He sees the going away of power, And none is restrained and left.
The Lord is going to vindicate his people; he will be merciful to his servants when he sees that they have no strength left, and that everyone is gone, whether slave or free.
37 And He has said, Where [are] their gods—The rock in which they trusted?
He'll ask, “What happened to your gods, the rock where your went for protection?
38 Who eat the fat of their sacrifices, [And] drink the wine of their drink-offering? Let them arise and help you, Let it be a hiding place for you!
Who ate the fat of your sacrifices and drank the wine of your drink offerings? Have them come and help you; have them come and protect you!
39 See, now, that I [am] He, And there is no god besides Me; I put to death and I keep alive; I have struck and I heal; And there is not a deliverer from My hand,
Listen! I am the only God! There is no other God except me! I bring death, and I give life; I wound, and I heal. No one can be rescued from my power.
40 For I lift up My hand to the heavens, And have said, I live for all time!
I hold up my hand to heaven and solemnly declare on my eternal life,
41 If I have sharpened the brightness of My sword, And My hand lays hold on judgment, I return vengeance to My adversaries, And to those hating Me—I repay!
when I sharpen my shining sword and pick it up to execute judgment, I will repay my enemies and punish those who hate me as they deserve.
42 I make My arrows drunk with blood, And My sword devours flesh, From the blood of the pierced and captive, From the head of the leaders of the enemy.
My arrows will become drunk with blood, as my sword eats flesh; the blood of those who are killed and captured, the heads of the enemy's leaders.”
43 Sing, O nations, [with] His people, For He avenges the blood of His servants, And He turns back vengeance on His adversaries, And has pardoned His land [and] His people.”
Celebrate with him! Let all God's angels worship him! Celebrate, foreigners, with his people; because he will pay back those who killed his children. He will punish his enemies, and repay those who hate him; he will purify his land and his people.
44 And Moses comes and speaks all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Hoshea son of Nun;
Then Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and recited all the words of this song for the people to hear.
45 and Moses finishes to speak all these words to all Israel,
After Moses finished reciting the whole song to all the Israelites,
46 and says to them, “Set your heart to all the words which I am testifying against you today, that you command your sons to observe to do all the words of this law,
he told them, “Think about all these words I've declared to you today, so you can order your children to follow carefully everything in this law.
47 for it [is] not a vain thing for you, for it [is] your life, and by this thing you prolong days on the ground to where you are passing over the Jordan to possess it.”
Don't treat these words as trivial because they are your life, and by them you will have long lives in the country that you will own after crossing the Jordan.”
48 And YHWH speaks to Moses on this very same day, saying,
That same day the Lord told Moses,
49 “Go up to this Mount Abarim, Mount Nebo, which [is] in the land of Moab, which [is] on the front of Jericho, and see the land of Canaan which I am giving to the sons of Israel for a possession;
“Climb up into the Abarim mountains to Mount Nebo, in the land of Moab opposite Jericho, and look over the country of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites for them to own.
50 and die on the mountain to where you are going up, and be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron has died on Mount Hor and is gathered to his people;
There on the mountain you've climbed, you will die and join your people in death, in the same way your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and joined his people.
51 because you trespassed against Me in the midst of the sons of Israel at the waters of Meribath-Kadesh, the wilderness of Zin, because you did not sanctify Me in the midst of the sons of Israel.
For there at the waters of Meribah-kadesh in the Desert of Zin, you both were unfaithful to me. You misrepresented me to the Israelites when you didn't treat me as holy in their presence.
52 Indeed, you see the land before [you], but you do not go in there to the land which I am giving to the sons of Israel.”
Though you will see the country that I am giving the Israelites from a distance, you won't enter it.”
